The small lunar probe developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) successfully landed softly on the lunar surface at 23:20 on January 19, 2024, making Japan the fifth country to achieve a soft landing on the moon after the Soviet Union, the United States, China, and India. Although it accomplished the feat of soft landing, the SLIM detector also overturned, literally, which is why JAXA never released confirmation after the live broadcast that night and the press conference was postponed.
At that time, JAXA discovered that the probe had successfully released two small robots during the landing process, but there was a problem with the lander itself. The solar panel could not be aligned with the sun and could not be charged. The probe then used battery power for data transmission, and it went into sleep after the battery was exhausted.
The picture above is a real shot of the LEV-1 robot
The detector is actually very large
Japan now announces the latest situation:
According to survey data, the probe malfunctioned in the last minute of landing. One of the two reverse thrust engines malfunctioned and shut down (the engine nozzle fell off directly), resulting in only one reverse thrust working, which in turn led to an imbalance. So the probe did not actually land softly but fell "gently" on the lunar surface.
However, the altitude was already very low at that time, so it was not broken. If it malfunctioned when it lowered its orbit like the Russian Luna-25 lunar probe, it would probably have created a big crater on the moon's surface.
Talking back to the Japanese probe, JAXA said that it fell after landing due to the imbalance caused by reverse thrust. The current posture is with the butt "up" and the nose part of the probe has sunk into the lunar regolith.
This also caused the solar panels to be unable to deploy and charge normally, and the detector is now out of contact due to lack of power supply.
Any chance of waking up?
There is still a chance, because the place where the SLIM probe landed is a crater. The crater has a slope, and the actual landing location is on the slope.
The solar charging panel is not facing upward but towards the west. At the landing site, the sun comes out from the east in the morning, that is, the solar panel faces away from the sun.
So we need to wait for the opportunity. If SLIM's solar panels can automatically charge when the sun passes through the western sky in the next few days, then there is still a chance for the SLIM detector to wake up.
LEV-2 robot
Two little robots:
Since the two small robots carried were released before the probe landed, they were not stuck in the probe.
The small robots are called Lunar Excursion Vehicles/LEVs, and LEV-2 was designed by JAXA in collaboration with Transformers brand toy manufacturer TakaraTomy. It can change its shape to move on the lunar surface.
JAXA has now confirmed that LEV-2 was successfully deployed on the lunar surface and can drive normally. LEV-1 is a larger robot, and the photos taken by LEV-2 are forwarded to the earth by LEV-1 (without going through the SLIM detector).